I took in 7 very unwell piggies today. They are extremely skinny. And quite mite infested.

3 boars, all young, one a little guy. Severe mites, one has an open sore on his hind end, another is breathing rather labored. I only saw one guy poop two poops and they are small, hard, and sort of orange in color (but all they had in the cage was a carrot). I think they are dehydrated.

4 sows. All young, 2 are real little. Not as severe mites as the boys but still obvious. Skinny, but didn't hear labored breathing from any of them.

These guys are either super scared, or feeling so unwell that they are just sitting in their cages. They did try to escape while I was weighing them, though. But I am very worried. In the cages I have hay, pellets, veggies. 1 boar, the guy with the sore and the funny poops, is eating lettuce. The other bigger one (with the labored breathing) is also exploring a little and hopefully nibbling. The baby is just sitting there.

The girls went under the hay to hide, though I do see a little movement now so hopefully they were just really scared.

I treated them all with Ivermectin. Even the little ones. I have the pour on kind so it is easier to measure the smaller doses. I just couldn't leave them like that.

I work tomorrow and have to leave at 2pm. I can go to the vet (45 minutes away) in the morning and get meds. What do you guys recommend? Do you think they should have sub-q's? I don't know how to do that, but could get someone from the vet where I worked to show me. That vet is close. But if I need meds, it's a lot cheaper for me to go to the other vet.

I'm thinking the labored breathing guy (boar 1) should get started on antibiotics. Would baytril be ok for him at 728 grams? I'm not sure if either vet stocks bactrim, so it is likely that is something that would need to be mail ordered.

Do you think pain meds are called for, for the guy with the sore? And antibiotics for him? That is boar 2? Anything else? I have chlorohex here I could rinse it with but I don't want to hurt him more than I have to.

I think I will call the vet where I work (only teaching classes there now) in the morning and see if one of the vet techs is willing to come by and do/show me how to do the sub-q's. They will not give me meds without a vet examining the pigs, and don't always write off all the office/exam charges, while the other vet who is further away will charge me for the meds only, and those are cheaper too. I think it's so hard on them to travel, I will go with the closer vet, though. Even though it will cost more, it will be eaiser on the pigs.

Nurgle, I'm wondering if it could look like that because there is no hair there due to the mites? And squinted due to pain, possibly?

Thanks Nurgle. Seems there was no resolution to Paulo's pogs. Hopefully they are doing better now.

At first I thought it was a sore that was related to mites. But, it's not exactly an area ho could have scratched himself . . . so I am not sure what is going on there or just what to do for him.

Should I do a rinse with dilute chlorohex tonight, or wait until tomorrow and see what the vet thinks (they are good vets but don't see a lot of pigs other than mine, but they are open to listening to me).

I still have to update Caetano's thread. LER, from your pictures it seems the sores are pretty much the same.

We had culture done for bacteria and fungus, with samples taken form the three pigs, and got some results.

In Caetano's case it was a bacteria, and he was treated with Chloramphenicol palmitate for ten days and also with a Chloramphenicol-based cream on the sores, to help eliminate dead tissues and to aid with overall healing, until there were no more sores and/or scabs.

It has been some 15 days since I stopped with the cream, and he has been fine since then.

Wow, those poor pigs! Syringing water may help. Subcues and an evaluation by a vet certainly is a good idea. Bactrim is satsifactory for many uri's. I wish you the best. I hope the food you offer them they eat heartily.

Poor piggy, those sores look nasty. One of my pigs got mites last year and she scratched herself until she had wounds very similar to that. It turned out she was hypo-alergenic so very alergic to mites. She had a course of cattle worming injections from the vet though, and she cleared up within a few weeks. I say while your waiting to give them some TLC. Do they scream when you cuddle them? For the long term, try freezing hay to stop the mites from getting to them.

Little Patricia
?? - 4/18/05
A victim of greed and ignorance, your days were filled with hunger and pain.
You are in a better place now.
I only wish I could have reached you sooner.

Thank you everyone for trying to help me help this little pig. Especially Katie for posting the emergency message. My vet did call Angel Memorial and consult with the exotics vet on staff there. He said we were doing the right things, and agreed with my vet that her prognosis was less than a 5% chance to survive. They suspected her body was shutting down and she was already in organ failure. She was unable to regulate her temperature at all, so we couldn't keep a constant source of heat or we would risk her temp spiking. But once out of the heat source, her temp fell back down. When I first arrived with her, her temp would not even register on the thermometer. We were able to get it up, but it would fall again, we did this over and over for 3.5 hours before I made the decision to let her go. She was so very, very thin. She was unable to hold her head up. She wouls just flop over on her side while I was taking hertemp and I had to pllace her upright only to have her fall over again. She was taking those deep gasping breaths my vet said something about how they are the body's way of doing CPR.

Oh, as I am writing this, the remaining girls are racing a popcorning around their cage. I believe they may have just been visited by an angel pig.

All the remaining pigs, while thin, are not nearly as thin as Patricia was. [If only I had realized she was so much thinner yesterday, perhaps I could have helped her better.] They are all eating their veggies and hay and pellets. All are fiesty when I catch them to give them their vitamin C and eye drops.

I'm very sorry, LER. When I put Doom to sleep, the vet said that his falling to the side was from small seizures brought on by liver enzymes out of whack. His liver was enormous because he hadn't been able to eat enough. He also was skin and bones by the time he started having the seizures.

That sounds a lot like what happened to Poppy, sans the diarrhea. Poppy's temp was so low, and hard to regulate, and she couldn't even hold her head, muchless herself, up. Gasping breaths as well. It's such a very sad thing. :( I feel so sorry for little Patricia. May she rest in peace and find more happiness than she found in life.

Thank you both. Hearing your similar experiences helps. There are two little baby girls. I am going to name them Pattycake and Poppyseed in honor of out departed babies. Now I just need a name for the other girl. Salana, would you like to name her?

I forgot to add, about the boys, the guy with the wound has to wear something to keep him from biting/licking at his sore. I have a piece of x-ray film to try and fashion a cape like thing for him. I didn't get a chance to do it yet, though. The other bigger male needs to go back in for a recheck in a couple of days, possibly sooner, and may need chest x-rays due to his wheezing. They also appear to have serious eye problems and we are looking at possible surgery depending on how things look once they are healthier.

I'm sad that poor Paticia wasn't able to have a better time on earth. She reminded me of my late Chloe, with her fur all over the place like a poof ball. It's nice to think that they're up in guinea pig heaven munching on some hay and veggies (or Chloe's favorite, dandelions). I'm glad I was able to contribute to the fight for her life, even if one result is that we knew nothing more could be done, and it was her time to go.